Three-judge panel grants California a two-year extension to comply with prison population cap

A three-judge panel on Monday granted California a two-year extension to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of design bed capacity.

The inmate population reduction order was issued in 2009 – and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 – in response to the Plata and Coleman class action lawsuits that blamed severe and chronic overcrowding in California’s prisons for the widespread denial of basic medical and mental health care to inmates, which amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.

However, the judges were left with few options given that Gov. Jerry Brown has threatened to move about 8,900 inmates to out-of-state private prisons to comply with the population cap without the extension.

“While we are reluctant to extend the deadline for two more years, we also acknowledge that the [state has agreed] that, with such an extension, they will implement measure that should result in a durable solution to prison overcrowding in California…We recognize that these measures should have been adopted much earlier,” according to the court’s opinion. “Nevertheless resolving the conditions in California prisons for the long run, and not merely for the next few months, is of paramount importance to this Court as well as to the people of this State.”

leasing more beds in county and local jails as well as an in-state private prison;

increase good time credits prospectively for non-violent second-strike offenders by 33% and minimum custody inmates by 2 for 1, which would allow them to be released earlier than otherwise;

allow non-violent second strike offenders to be eligible for parole after serving 50% of their sentence;

expand medical parole for ill inmates;

expand parole for inmates who are 60 years or older and have already served at least 25 years of their sentence;

open and operate 13 re-entry hubs within 1 year;

re-allocate funds from SB 105 that would have gone to paying for out-of-state prisons to recidivism reduction programs;

and expand pilot re-entry programs with counties and local governments.

In addition, the court has appointed a compliance officer to ensure that California meets the population benchmarks. And if the state fails to meet the new benchmarks, the court may direct the release of inmates – with the exception of inmates on death role or serving life sentences without possibility of parole – “necessary to achieve compliance”.

In exchange for the two-year extension, the state has agreed to not appeal or modify the court’s ordered reduction or “any order issued by the compliance officer”.

“It is encouraging that the Three-Judge Court has agreed to a two-year extension. The state now has the time and resources necessary to help inmates become productive members of society and make our communities safer,” said Brown in a written statement.